Dad, daughter die trying to flee wildfire

TERRADES, Spain -- As a wildfire closed in on them, five members of a vacationing French family abandoned their car and stumbled through thick smoke down a steep hillside in a desperate bid to reach the waters of the Mediterranean.

Instead of a beach, they found themselves at the edge of a cliff with no choice but to jump or try to climb down. Two plummeted to their deaths.

The deaths of the father and daughter off the 65-foot high cliff were among the most tragic tales from Spain as it battles blazes in one of its driest summers in decades. The fire involved was probably sparked by someone throwing a lit cigarette out of a car along a small road jammed with vehicles heading to France, police said.

The deaths occurred Sunday night in Portbou, a Spanish town just three miles from the French border. Because wildfires elsewhere had forced the closing of the main highway linking Spain to France, traffic was diverted to the smaller road via Portbou.

The tossed cigarette apparently started a fire on the pavement and it quickly spread to woods alongside it before the cars could escape and officials could shut the road, Deputy Mayor Elisabet Cortaba said Monday. Around 150 people were soon running from their vehicles and down into the rocky terrain toward the beach.

The deadly northern regional wind phenomenon called "Tramontana" blew intense gusts in the heavily forested area, spreading the blaze quickly. The family of five became separated from the rest of the group on the way down and found itself at the edge of the cliff as the fire closed in, Cortaba said.

The mother tried to scale down the crumbly cliff-face, but lost her grip and fell, said Tony Buixeda, the town's port manager, who was at the scene in a boat. One daughter told rescuers that she jumped, but Buixeda said he did not know if the others jumped or fell because he was already swimming toward the mother.

Some witnesses "said they threw themselves off, others said they fell," Buixeda said. "The only thing they could do was go to the water."

The father, 60, died instantly when he hit submerged rocks, and his 15-year-old daughter drowned, Cortaba said.

The mother was in a critical condition yesterday with a back injury, and the son and other daughter were pulled from the water without suffering life-threatening injuries.